NEW DELHI, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Canada's Brookfield Asset
Management BAMa.TO on Friday made its first significant
investment in Indian infrastructure, buying six road and three
power projects from India's Gammon Infrastructure Projects
Limited GAIN.NS .
A consortium composed of Brookfield and the Core
Infrastructure India Fund Pte Ltd are buying the projects, six
of which are operational, said Ambit Holdings, which advised
Gammon on the deal.
Indian infrastructure firms have spent the last two years
trying to sell assets to pay down debts after an economic
downturn squeezed cash flows and damaged their balance sheets,
although interest from foreign investors has remained muted.
"This transaction represents Brookfield's first major
investment in Indian infrastructure, and provides us a great
platform to participate in the Indian growth story over the long
term," Anuj Ranjan, Managing Partner at Brookfield, said in a
statement.
Brookfield is a global asset manager with more than $200
billion in assets under management.
The sale will allow Gammon, a medium sized Indian
infrastructure firm, to cut its consolidated debt to 22.29
billion rupees ($337 million) from 39.47 billion rupees.
($1 = 66.1300 Indian rupees)